Inventor unveils first African-designed smartphone
Image by: GUY-GERVAIS KITINA / AFP
A Congolese inventor has unveiled what he says is the first African-designed smartphone.
Verone Mankou, 27, told AFP that the so-called Elikia, which means "hope" in the local language, is now on sale in the Republic of Congo.
Mankou, head of the company VMK, said the Android-powered device was on sale in only in Congo for now, but he planned to launch it in other countries.
The phone was initially due to go on sale in October but its launch was delayed "because of an explosion in demand," he said.
Though the phone is Congolese by design, it is manufactured in China. It costs about 130 euros ($170) -- a considerable sum in this central African nation.
The phone has a 3.5-inch touchscreen, 512 megabytes of RAM and a 650-Mhz processor. Its camera is five megapixels, and it also comes with GPS and Bluetooth.
Mankou last year designed what was billed as Africa's first tablet computer.
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Posted 171 days agojamesnaker
Anyway, trust an African to 'design' a phone that is the size of a brick and looks like something that comes from the early 90s. We may as well get a laptop with a 3G card in it and it will serve the same purpose with more memory, apps and disk space.
derek.abdinor6
Posted 171 days agospain2
KZN
m1si2zi3nzo4
Posted 171 days ago